Civilization II
Sid Meier's Civilization II, a.k.a. Civ2 or Civ II, is a turn-based strategy game designed by Brian Reynolds, Douglas Caspian-Kaufman, and Jeff Briggs. Although it is a sequel to Sid Meier's Civilization, neither Sid Meier nor Bruce Shelley was involved in its development. Civilization II was first released in 1996 for the PC and later ported to the Sony PlayStation. In 2002 Atari re-released the game for newer operating systems, such as Windows Me and Windows XP. The Multiplayer Gold Edition was included in the Civilization Chronicles box set released in 2006. Army battle.jpg Brennor the Mighty.jpg CivRev City.jpg SpanishInquisition.png Cevo-Bk52-MIRat2097.jpg Techchart.png Steam screenshot.png FreCol roads etc.jpg FreeCol-no-farm-options.jpg FreeCol-borders.jpg C-evo hyperproduction.jpg C-evo-39-1784AD.jpg C-evo-39-940AD.jpg C-evo-39-2235west.jpg C-evo-39-2235east.jpg Gameplay Civilization II is similar to the first Civilization, with some changes to the units and civilizations and additional wonders, units, tile "specials", and technologies included. The graphics (greatly improved with clickable links and movable windows) have been changed from top-down view to isometric representation. The Artificial Intelligence, or AI, was improved upon as well, including the elimination of most random events (such as the situation where Wonders of the World were built spontaneously in the original Civilization) by now making the computer player go through the same production requirements as the human player. Rivers no longer occupy the whole of each tile along its length. The river is just part of each topography square it flows through, adding productive value and movement ability. Rivers (as in Colonization) now act much like roads - moving one square along a river will cost only 1/3 of a movement point. The game features entirely new concepts, such as firepower and hitpoints (meaning phalanxes cannot so easily beat battleships), and changes some units' abilities and strengths. For instance, settlers (and the engineers who supersede them) can be automated to improve surrounding areas, but no longer ignore enemy zones of control. Legions cost more and have greater attack and defense values; some new units are added such as Stealth Bomber and Stealth Fighter. One memorable element in the game is the ability to consult the "High Council" for advice (as long as the player still has the CD in the drive). (The original "Civ" has relatively primitive static versions of similar advisers.) The council consists of film clips of young actors portraying advisers in the areas of the military (a brawny man, often drunk, angry, or both; he becomes a stereotypical American general when you reach Modern Age), economics (a snooty and suave businessman), diplomacy (a saucy Femme Fatale with a vaguely Eastern European accent), technological progress (a stereotypically nerdy scientist), and the people's happiness (an Elvis Presley lookalike). They often argue with and insult one another, as each adviser's department demands a different set of priorities. The counsellors' costumes change with each new era. In many ways, the "High Council" constitutes a bit of comic relief. Amusingly, when the player is experiencing anarchy, the characters begin talking at the same time, interrupting each other, and finally beginning to fight, with all counsellor windows shutting down and turning into the "A" symbol of Anarchism. Victory As in "Civ", there are two paths to victory in this game: to conquer every other civilization, or to build a spaceship and be the first to reach Alpha Centauri. The latter can be much more difficult because there are a limited number of turns in the game, ending in the year 2020. If the spaceship does not reach Alpha Centauri by then, the game will simply end. The player can continue playing after all civilizations have been conquered, the spaceship has reached its destination, or the year 2020, but there will no longer be any scoring. The sooner a player conquers every other civilization, or the space ship arrives, the better as far as scoring is concerned. However, there are many things that can be done to gain points, so it occasionally is better to hold off victory to gain more points by, say, researching extra technologies or building another Wonder or growing the population. Scoring There is a scoring system which will measure how well one did. Each happy citizen contributes two points, each content citizen contributes one point, and each unhappy citizen contributes zero points. This means that the higher the population of your civilization, the higher you can expect your score to be. Corrupt players may increase the luxury rate to the maximum (depending upon their government type) right before the very end of the game in order to inflate their scores. Each wonder of the world will also add 20 points to the end score. Each square with pollution deducts ten points. The final score will also give a civilization percentage. The higher this percentage is, the better. Finally, a title will be given to the player. Particularly good ones include "Lion-Hearted," "the Great" with the greatest obtainable title being "The Magnificent." Expansions Scenarios There were three expansion packs that slowly added more features to the game. The first was Conflicts in Civilization included 20 new scenarios, 12 created by the makers of the game, and 8 produced by fans. It also added an enhanced macro language for scenario scripting. The twelve scenarios created by MPS: *After the Apocalypse *Age of Discovery *The Age of Napoleon *Alexander the Great *Alien Invasion *American Civil War *The Crusades *The Great War *Jihad: The Rise of Islam *The Mongol Horde *The War for Independence *World War: 1979 The "Best of the Net," pack 1: * Atolon * The Cholera of Zeus * The Conquest of Britain * Cross and Crescent * The Fall of the Great Kesh * East Wind, Rain * Persian Gulf War * Native Rebellion It was followed by Fantastic Worlds, which added 19 new scenarios as well as a variety of editors for the game. The eleven scenarios created by MPS: * The Age of Reptiles * Atlantis * Ice Planet * Mars Now! * Master of Magic, Jr. * Master of Orion, Jr. * The Mythic History of Midgard * The New World * Samurai * The World of Jules Verne * X-COM: Assault The "Best of the Net," pack 2: * Battle of the Sexes * Bears at Play * Civ-Life! * Hidden * Mammoth * Paradise * Santa is Coming * USA 2010 Other scenarios At least one published pack included just two scenarios: Rome and World War II. See Civilization II scenarios. Multiplayer Gold Later, the original game was re-released as Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition, which bundled both prior expansion packs and added options for networked and hotseat play, and features tweaked AI. However, all of the music tracks that were in the original release of Civilization II have been removed - only some of the "new" ones remain. The tweaked AI is also perpetually unfriendly, rendering most diplomatic functions useless. Test of Time Civilization II: Test of Time was released in 1999. It was a stand-alone game with new features, such as redrawn, animated units, support for multiple maps in one game, and some new campaign modes. Reception Civ II was placed on the IGN.com Top 100 Games list http://top100.ign.com/2005/index.html, coming in at #4. This list also included console games, and Civ II was the highest-ranked PC game. Legacy Civilization II is a game with longevity. While most PC games come and go in a matter of months, this game was still going strong after several years and inspired many titles including Activision's Call to Power series and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. This longevity, at least in part, is due to an unending stream of mods and scenarios produced by its enormous fan base. The game was followed by Firaxis' Civilization III. Civilizations As in "Civ", no more than seven may exist at one time, and any destroyed early are reincarnated by another of the same color if available. Civilization Team Color chart Only one civilization per color, per game WHITE Romans Russians Celts GREEN Babylonians Zulus Japanese BLUE Germans French Vikings YELLOW Egyptians Aztecs Spanish TEAL Americans Chinese Persians ORANGE Greeks English Carthaginians PURPLE Indians Mongols Sioux RED Barbarians (NPC)* While Barbarians do not act like regular NPCs in this game (they just attack and pillage), they can take over a city and produce units (but will not produce settlers to expand). Civilization Advances Units There are 45 units in Civilization II. Most of them existed in the original 'Civilization', but there are a few new ones (Paratrooper and Marines, for example), and a few have been renamed. (For example, Militia are now called Warriors, and Cavalry are now called Horsemen.) In addition, some previous units have had their properties changed. The clearest examples of this are: the Legion has its attack and defense strengths increased, the Chariot's attack was reduced from 4 to 3, and sea units can no longer conquer an enemy city. These units, along with their respective characteristics (prerequisite techs, ADM values, etc) are listed in the controlling file 'rules.txt', and can be altered to enhance gameplay (see Game Modification section). The 'rules.txt' file also contains support for 3 additional units (11 with the expansion), with 3 icons already included. As in Civ1, the Barbarians have a special version of the diplomat that acts as a 'leader' to various spawned units; 'capturing' (defeating) it (when it is alone) will net the player a certain amount of gold, that amount depending on the difficulty level. A popup box will report this is a 'ransom payment'. City improvements There are 34 City Improvements (buildings) that can be constructed to improve some aspect of that city's production, happiness, growth, defense, or economical or scientific output. Many of them add cumulative benefits with their earlier versions (such as a Bank requiring but also working in addition to the Marketplace, and the same for the University building upon the benefits of a Library). Some improvements can be affected by a Civilization Advance or Wonder of the World (e.g., the effects of a Temple are doubled with the Oracle), whereas others are automatically granted (e.g., a Granary exists in every city of the player that controls the Pyramids). A special case exists for the Barracks improvement (similar to that in Civ1). With the development of Gunpowder, all existing Barracks become obsolete (and are sold, which is an improvement on Civ1) and have to be rebuilt (and cost 2 gold per turn instead of the original 1 gold per turn). Then, with the development of Mobile Warfare (not Combustion as in Civ1), Barracks become obsolete and are sold again and have to be rebuilt once more (with the cost of 3 gold per turn). If a captured city has a barracks of any type, it becomes the sort the captor is operating with. In additional to the 34 traditional buildings (above), there are 4 other non-Wonders that can be constructed in a city. First, after the discovery of Corporation, a player can 'build' the Capitalization improvement, which greatly enhances economic output (for a time). Secondly, as in Civ1, there are 3 types of spaceship improvements: Spaceship Component (prerequisite: plastics), Spaceship Module (superconductor), and Spaceship Structural (spaceflight). These are built to complete the spaceship, which is said to be launched from the civilization's capital city. Construction (or flight) ceases if the capital is captured. There is a minimum number of each type required to launch; and there is a maximum number of each that can be used in the overall construction of the spaceship. Note: using the maximum configuration greatly improves the score obtained with a successful landing; but if trying to beat another power a player may build the minimum number of modules but with maximum propulsion and fuel, to get there faster. Wonders of the World ;Wonders of the World and gameplay All Wonders of the World have their own prerequisite technology in order to be able to construct them (e.g., Map Making for the Lighthouse, Bronze Working for the Colossus, and Pottery for the Hanging Gardens). Certain technologies also cause the expiration of a particular Wonder's benefits (e.g., Magnetism, Flight and Railroad for the three Wonders mentioned above, respectively). Most Wonders have technologies that make them expire, but there are some that never expire. Wonders of the World can be categorized into those that affect happiness, cities and buildings, units and movement, technology, diplomacy and finally economics. Wonders can also be city-specific or civilization-specific. City-specific Wonders only affect the city in which it was built (such as the Colossus which grants an extra trade arrow in utilized squares of that city's radius). Civilization-specific Wonders affect the entire empire that controls it (such as the Hanging Gardens which grants +1 happiness in all cities of the same civilization). When a civilization-specific Wonder does not expire, its effects can dramatically affect gameplay. For example, building (or capturing) Michaelangelo's Chapel immediately puts a Cathedral in every city of the controlling civilization, greatly promoting happiness. Of course, this makes the cities that contain those Wonders all the more crucial to defend, since losing the city to conquest causes the benefits of that Wonder to be lost (and switch over to the capturing player if the city survives). Accordingly, certain Wonders have a 'must' status in certain types of games or for certain types of players. For example, the Pyramids (+50% retention of food surplus after city growth), Michelangelo's Chapel (Cathedral in every city), J. S. Bach's Cathedral (free additional temple) and Leonardo's Workshop (automatic unit upgrades - until the development of the Automobile) are valuable for expanding empires and/or gameplay at the more difficult levels. Additionally, warmongering empires will also seek to build the Great Wall and Sun Tzu's War Academy. Alternatively, one can temporarily cripple a rival civilization by causing their Wonder of the World to expire, such as when any player learns Metallurgy causing the Great Wall to expire (and the free city-walls in each of the controlling player's cities suddenly disappear). Game modification While expansions are sold separately, the PC version is programmed so that computer-savvy players can modify the game themselves. Amongst the files installed on the user's computer when the game is installed is a file called "rules.txt" which controls the game. The text file itself practically encourages the user to modify the game, giving instructions on how to change unit capabilities, add up to three custom units, and change other basic characteristics of the game such as when wonders expire. Some commercial versions (as noted above) also include premade scenarios (with files ending in ".scn"). Examples are "Rome" and "World War II". See Civilization II scenarios. Advanced computer users can also modify the game by changing the visual files (such as units.gif). While there is a risk of damaging the gameplay, it is possible to change the appearance of units, terrain, people, etc. NOTE: It is advised that, before modifying any of these files, the user copy these files to a safe location in case any file is changed in a way that affects the game irreparably. Multimedia Civilization II's music is in the Red Book CD-audio format, the same as that found on normal music CDs. It is not in MIDI or another computer-specific format. The songs are quite varied; some are from the 19th century classical era, such as the Blue Danube Waltz, while others have a tribal, tropical sound to them. The music can be played back through any CD-ROM drive. Over 200 MB of space on the Civilization II CD is taken up by the music, 280 MB is occupied by the videos (many of them are historical footages), whereas the actual program data takes up less than 30 MB. The five different releases of Civilization II have added and subtracted tracks from the mix, with Fantastic Worlds containing the largest number of tracks of all releases. ;Wonders of the World Music Whenever a player builds a Wonder of the World, a short video with music is played. The music is often taken from other sources: * King Richard's Crusade - Dance of the Furies, Christoph Willibald Gluck * Michelangelo's Chapel - Credo, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina * J.S. Bach's Cathedral - Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Johann Sebastian Bach * Shakespeare's Theatre - Taken from the prologue to Henry V * Statue of Liberty - El Capitan March, John Philip Sousa * Isaac Newton's College - Concerto For 4 Violins & Strings in B minor, Antonio Vivaldi * Adam Smith's Trading Company - The Entrance of the Queen of Sheba from the oratorio Solomon, George Frideric Handel Most videos, however, feature original compositions with often discernible inspiration,Wonder Music Revealed - Civilization Fanatics' Forums either from Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ: * Pyramids - "The Feeling Begins" * Great Wall of China - "Gethsemane" * Sun Tzu's War Academy - "Gethsemane" Trevor Jones' and Randy Edelman's soundtrack to The Last of the Mohicans: * Colossus - Main Title * Great Lighthouse - "Elk Hunt" * Marco Polo's Embassy - "The Kiss" * Magellan's Expedition - "Promontory" Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack to Laputa: Castle in the Sky: * Great Library - "Sheeta's Decision" * Copernicus' Observatory - Track 12 * United Nations - Main Title Or various other sources: * Oracle - ''Theme from Harry's Game by Clannad * Women's Suffrage - Swinging at the Daisy Chain by the Count Basie Orchestra * Hoover Dam - MechWarrior 2 Soundtrack by Gregory Alper & Jeehun Hwang * Manhattan Project - either Bo's Veranda or I Had My Chance by Morphine * Apollo Program - Telegraph Road by Dire Straits * Cure for Cancer - possibly Clannad Players wishing to sample the music without a computer can do so by simply placing the game CD (provided it is the original 1996 edition) into an ordinary domestic CD-player. See also *Cheating in Civ2 *Help with playing Civ2 *List of advances in Civ2 *List of buildings in Civ2 *List of civilizations in Civ2 *List of resources in Civ2 *List of units in Civ2 *List of terrains in Civ2 *List of Wonders in Civ2 *Civilization II: How it differs from Civilization *Civilization Fanatics Center *Apolyton Civilization Site References External links * [http://mobygames.com/game/sid-meiers-civilization-ii Moby Game's entry on Civilization II] * Civilized Online Gaming Community *CivFanatics Civilization Forums *Custom Civ2 Scenarios *Alan Nicoll's Civ2 web pages *Game Demo * Civilization 2 Review *Early Landing Games Strategy Guide *Civilization Anonymous: site claiming to provide support to Civilization addicts; actually an example of stealth marketing * Category:MicroProse Games